Close User Name Password
Travel alerts straight to your inbox:
 

Tag: Hidden Fees View All Tags

Tags: / / / /

Spirit to Charge $4.90 'Passenger Usage Fee' For Just Buying a Ticket

March 9, 2009 at 10:11 AM | by Omri | 1 Comment

Last week we covered a couple of customers who vowed never to fly Spirit Airlines again, no matter how competitive the fares. Given the direction the airline is going, that's not going to be a problem.

Spirit has decided to introduce a new fee, something called the passenger usage fee of $4.90 per ticket for flights purchased outside of Spirit's own airport ticket counters. Yes, that includes the tickets you buy online at Spirit's own website.

The fee, designed to cover reservation-booking costs, will be part of Spirit's aggressive and edgy strategy, which doesn't always fly well with passengers... For airlines, one huge advantage of fees is that they don't show up in most reservation systems when consumers are shopping for airfares. That's because airlines aren't required to advertise fees that only certain customers will pay, like those checking baggage.

more ›